Twelve Tales; With A Headpiece, A Tailpiece, And An Intermezzo Being Select Stories

Paperback | January 12, 2012

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This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1899. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... IVAN GREETS MASTERPIECE 'twas at supper at Charlie Powell's; every one there admitted Charlie was in splendid form. His audacity broke the record. He romanced away with even more than his usual brilliant recklessness. Truth and fiction blended well in his animated account of his day's adventures. He had lunched that morning with the newlyappointed editor of a high-class journal for the home circle --circulation exceeding half a million,--and had returned all agog with the glorious prospect of untold wealth opening fresh before him. So he discounted his success by inviting a dozen friends to champagne and lobster-salad at his rooms in St. James's, and held forth to them, after his wont, in a rambling monologue. 'When I got to the house,' he said airily, poising a champagne-glass halfway up in his hand, 'with the modest expectation of a chop and a pint of porter in the domestic ring--imagine my surprise at finding myself forthwith standing before the gates of an Oriental palace--small, undeniably small, a bijou in its way, but still, without doubt, a veritable palace. I touched the electric bell. Hi, presto! at my touch the door flew open as if by magic, and disclosed --a Circassian slave, in a becoming costume a la Liberty in Regent Street, and smiling like the advertisement of a patent dentifrice! I gasped out' 'But how did ye know she was a Circassian?' PaddyO'Connor inquired, interrupting him brusquely. (His name was really Francis Xavier O'Connor, but they called him 'Paddy' for short, just to mark his Celtic origin.) Charlie Powell smiled a contemptuously condescending smile. He was then on the boom, as chief literary lion. 'How do I know ye 're an Oirishman, Paddy ?' he answered, hardly heeding the interruption. 'By her accent, my dear boy; her pure, unadul...